Which member of the Charlton family got his name on the very first United FA Youth team scoresheet?

Not three-times winner Bobby, but his brother Jack who had the misfortune to put through his own goal for Leeds at Old Trafford in the Reds first match in the prestigious inaugural tournament just over 60 years ago.

Just a couple of hundred fans at Old Trafford witnessed the historic start of United’s love affair with the Football Association’s competition for youths – a trophy that would be the Reds’ property for the first five years.

They had paid about four pence to watch the afternoon match against Leeds on a damp October afternoon.

The FA Youth Cup was to have a place in United fans’ hearts with the tragic Busby Babes featuring in those victorious early years in the 50s.

Munich victims Duncan Edwards and David Pegg kicked off United’s interest in the tournament that afternoon.

By the following May, 20,934 turned up at Old Trafford to see Edwards, Pegg, Eddie Colman, Liam Whelan and Co smash Wolves 7-1 in the first leg of the final.

United drew the second leg 2-2 at Molineux in front of 14,208 to land the first of the club’s record 10 triumphs in the tournament.

In future years Nobby Stiles, George Best, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes would lift their first significant United trophies as FA Youth Cup final victors. In 2011, the current Reds youngsters became the latest to put their mark on the competition.

In between is a 60-year tale that has been chronicled by United fans Steve Hobin, from Gorton, and Tony Park.

It has been an 18-year marathon quest and exhaustive labour of love involving countless hours of research, phone calls and letters to bring the book together.

The idea behind the monumental task began soon after the Class of ’92 triumph.

“What kicked it off was that we had a family friend who had been a United fan since the 1920s and he would talk about all the old games,” Hobin told M.E.N. Sport.

“I thought to myself there is no information about this, there is not much to read about it. It was all hearsay.

“So I started the research in 1994 and for 12 months I went to Central Library every Saturday morning and spent a couple of hours and going through all the microfilms of newspapers.

“When I had gone from 1952 up to ’94, I took every bit of information I could from the Manchester papers like the Evening News and the old Chronicle.

“I then went to different libraries in the North West like Wigan, Liverpool, Oldham before somebody said why don’t you go down to the British Newspaper Library in London.

“I have done over 150 trips to that library in London over the last 20 years.

“That is how I have got all of the information. I have asked players for a rough idea but then gone and fine-tuned it. All the dates are absolutely spot on.

“It has been a labour of love. It has been hard work. But we are very proud of what we have done.

“Some of the games, particularly in the 70s, there was no interest in the youth team games at all. It went to pot. What we found was there were some games that were not even covered. That was a hard period.

“Eric Harrison kicked it off again. The success he had in the 80s started up the interest again.”

Over 500 hundred photographs, many previously unseen, have been unearthed and over 150 biographies of players who’ve performed for the Reds in the FA Youth Cup have been researched.

“It has not been easy to contact some of these players. We have contacted players in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, all over the show,” added Steve. “But Tony is like a bloodhound. He can find anybody. If they are alive he can find them.

“We had a player in the early 60s called Ken Morton and he used to room with Bobby Charlton. He was a decent winger but a year later they took George Best on! He went into coaching and he coached in the southern hemisphere and Tony managed to get his number off the Vietnamese FA.

“They gave him Ken’s mobile and Tony phoned him while he was taking a training session in Vietnam.

“A lot of my research was done before the internet was around and I would get the names of club historians and send off a request in a stamped addressed envelope for information. I have probably written over 200 letters.

“It has been like a great big jigsaw. We started off putting one or two pieces in and now we have the full picture. We just hope people will enjoy all the various stories and match reports. It has been an incredible adventure researching and writing an important part of United’s history.”

Sons of United is available to purchase from the website www.sonsofunited.com for £40 or as a download for £19.99.

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